Translation and plain language for citizens

Two languages, one public

Pakistan's government works largely in English while most citizens read Urdu or a regional language more comfortably. Officers translate constantly: reading citizens' Urdu applications, preparing Urdu notices, explaining English rules to people across a counter. AI machine translation and plain-language rewriting can help with all of this. The how-to guide on translating documents covers the mechanics; this module covers when to trust it.

Understanding versus publishing

The key distinction:

• To understand a document (reading an Urdu application, getting the gist of a letter), AI translation is usually good enough and fast.
• To publish, decide or act on a translation (a public notice, an order, a legal or financial document), it is not enough on its own. A fluent person must review it.

GovAI follows this rule itself: Urdu is never published from machine translation alone.

Where translation goes wrong

• Legal and technical terms can be rendered with an everyday word that changes the meaning.
• Names and places may be transliterated inconsistently, or translated as if they were ordinary words.
• Register can be wrong: conversational Urdu in a formal notice, or heavy Persianised Urdu that ordinary readers struggle with.
• Regional languages (Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and others) are handled much less reliably than Urdu.

Consistency through the glossary

Inconsistent terms confuse readers: one notice says مصنوعی ذہانت, another says آرٹیفیشل انٹیلیجنس, a third leaves it in English. Use the GovAI glossary for AI terms and paste the relevant terms into your prompt: "Use these Urdu terms: ...". Do the same with your department's own established terminology.

Plain language

Official English is often hard for citizens and for many officers. AI is good at plain-language rewriting:

Rewrite this paragraph so that a citizen with basic education can understand it. Keep the meaning exactly the same. Do not add or remove any condition.

Then compare the two versions line by line. The risk in simplification is the same as in summarising: conditions and exceptions quietly disappear.

A simple check: translate back

For important text, ask a separate AI session to translate the result back into the original language and compare with your source. Differences point to places where meaning slipped. This does not replace human review, but it catches obvious problems quickly.

Try it

Take a short public notice from your department. Ask an AI assistant to translate it into formal Urdu, using glossary terms where relevant. Then translate it back in a new session and compare. Mark any changes in meaning.

Check yourself

1. When is AI translation usually good enough on its own?
2. Name two common problems with AI translation of official text.
3. What is the main risk when rewriting official text in plain language?

Answers: (1) For understanding a document, not for publishing or acting on it. (2) Any two of: wrong legal or technical terms, inconsistent names, wrong register, weak regional language quality. (3) Conditions and exceptions being dropped, changing the meaning.